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In your case, roll or stamp just a small part of your face (not more than one cheek) and when it heals, do another cheek etc.

Disinfecting the dermaneedling instrument after dermarolling is more important than disinfecting the skin before dermarolling. Of prime importance is to clean the instrument after dermaneedling with dishwashing detergent and warm water (not boiling water) and rinsing it under a strong stream of water to remove blood and skin detrius from the needles. Then soak it in Chloramine-T or Ethanol. This prevents the formation of potentially harmful bacteria while the instrument is not used. The bacteria on your skin are much less dangerous that what can form when you don't clean a dermaneedling instrument.

Basically, if you do not clean a dermaroller, what forms on the roller head and needles are the same bacteria as that in a rotting corpse. Whereas the bacteria on the skin are totally different bacteria, it's more of a stabile ecosystem of probiotic bacteria, a protective layer of beneficial bacteria on your skin, a great majority of beneficial bacteria that prevent bad bacteria and harmful fungi from getting a foothold.

Your immune system has plenty of antibodies against the bacteria on your skin, aquired whenever you cut or chafed yourself. The same goes for active acne. Every time you squeeze a pimple, some bacteria enter your bloodstream and you make antibodies against them. Therefore, even if you "roll in" a lot of bacteria from your skin, there is only a very tiny chance that an infection can result.

So the main thing is to clean your roller after use with water and dishwashing liquid, to get rid of the "big chunks" (only visible under a microscope though) of skin detrius and body oils. That would in principle already be sufficient, but just to be totally on the safe side we also disinfect the roller in Ethanol. If you want to be absolutely sure that your roller is totally sterile like an operating scalpel straight from its packaging in a hospital, then instead of Ethanol, use our Chloramine-T. Chloramine-T kills bacteria like antibiotics do. Chloramine-T has in fact a double antibiotic mechanism of action. And it is cheaper than alcohol as well - from us at least.

Finally, I want to say that we had tens of thousands of customers over the past years and that we never heard of anyone getting an infection - ever. And that's because of what I already explained: "Rolling in" the bacteria on your own skin is in fact quite safe. And simply cleaning the roller well with water and a soapy substance is also sufficient, in practice. That means that disinfecting the skin and roller is actually overkill, and hence nobody ever reported an infection.

Anyone who still is worried about infections should soak the instrument overnight in a Chloramine-T solution and the result is total sterilization.

Tretinoin initially makes the skin dry and wrinkles are more visible on dry skin but the wrinkles themselves are the same and they have not changed/worsened after Tretinoin. The same wrinkles look more "wrinkly" on dry skin.

Long-term, Tretinoin improves wrinkles.

You have to moisturize a lot when using Tretinoin. For example, wet a cotton pad with tap water, add some almond oil and apply it to your face.

>I understand that the A-Ret cream that is sold on your site and prescription Retin-A are similar.

You can use anything that contains Tretinoin (= retinoic acid). The name of the cream does not matter. The therapeutic substance in it is the acidic form of vit. A - retinoic acid, also called tretinoin. For the rest, the creams may differ in other ingredients (such water, glycerin, propylene glycol, sorbic acid etc.) but that is not important.The active ingredient of our creams (except for Infadolan) is tretinoin. And the active ingredient of the Retin A cream is tretinoin.

We have recently added a size guide for various skin conditions into our instructions:

>pores that have become enlarged through excessive picking at my skin and squeezing

Yes, and that is exactly the point. Pores very often enlarge after excessive squeezing and that is why one has to be really careful using anything, especially on the nose.You can try a dermastamp but please do a test patch first to see how your pores react to it.

For example, with this customer of ours, there is improvement of acne scars but also of pores and scarred pores:

For the time being, we do not recommend the external application of C60 because it may trigger the production of reactive oxygen species upon UV exposure and until more research is done about it, only internal application is recommended.

But for anti-aging purposes, the absorption is already optimal per oral.

It depends what is the origin of the redness. Whether it is vascular (dilated blood vessels in the scar) – a scar that is not yet mature has increases blood flow to help healing. The scar is red and blanches white with finger pressure. Once the scar has fully matured it usually does not blanch with finger pressure. You can have vascular laser done (it seals blood capillaries by heat) but it is expensive and often not working very well or the redness comes back due to capillaries being re-formed. Also, the dilated capillaries are there to help healing so I am not sure whether sealing them is a good idea.

Stamping or rolling does not seal capillaries.

Other reason for redness is that the skin reacted to the injury by producing too much skin pigment melanin (in this case try hydroquinone cream or Tretinoin cream and stamping).

I tend not to advise a specific dermarolling aftercare product for acne-prone individuals because what causes breakouts in one, does not cause breakouts in the other and vice versa so I prefer that acne-prone people use products they know from their own experience.

To be honest, I don't think it is a good idea to take any chances with the skin on your nose (basically, I'd say avoid any treatment) because it can theoretically end up worse and as you said your pores are not really visible. It is probably not worth the risk.

To avoid peeling of you whole face, you can use a dermastamp with 35 needles. Stamping is more targeted and it does not cover such a large area as a dermaroller.

I will paste here relevant text from our dermarolling instructions:

Enlarged pores: Dermarolling works very effectively on acne scars but pores are not scars. Pores are ducts in the skin and their size is genetically determined. There is currently no method that can reliably and permanently make pores smaller. Very few of our customers managed to make their pores smaller through microneedling. You can try a regular 0.2 mm or a 0.5 dermaroller to thicken the epidermis or a 0.5 mm dermastamp. A thickened epidermis could make pores look smaller because the pore size is the smallest on the skin's surface and as you go deeper into the skin, the pore channel widens. Some of our customers improved their pore size with the single needle but always try just one pore to see if it is not making it worse. Do not expect results too soon.

Scars on the nose: All invasive skin treatments on the nose are risky because this area reacts and heals unpredictable and it can end up worse. You can try a 1 mm dermastamp but never perform any aggressive stamping here. Start slowly and try one small area first.

Thank you so much for taking time posting on our forum about your success with mcroneedling! Your story is almost too good to be true with so many various improvements :-) We have lots of satisfied customers but very few make the effort and post on our forum after they have achieved results. I am very happy about your results.